I was on the bus once again, returning to Bariloche and to the trailhead of a great adventure. An adventure not only to amazing places, but to becoming a different person.At last I finished the episode with my passport card and was delighted to walk into the hotel at about 7pm to find my card ready for me to collect. Thank you DHL. I spent the day shopping around for climbing equipment; ultimately buying a good ice axe and a pair of crampons – second hand of course. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Chopicalqui.jpgThe hotel reception gave me the address of a lady who owned a cheap hospedaje. So, as the sun began to set, I gathered my stuff and made my way up the hill…away from the touristy centre and toward the barrios of the city. Here I could camp for just $3, but I decided to go for the equally economical option of crashing on a couch outside on the balcony. Nelly – the owner of the guesthouse – welcomed me warmly and made sure that I was comfortable and happy. Throughout my travels across South America I was never short of being amazed at how friendly and accommodating people in hospitality were.I met a humble Japanese traveler, Taka, who was taking a Spanish course before I would continue a cross-continental motorbike expedition. I was pretty impressed with story. He had sold everything and decided to hit the big open spaces on a solo adventure of a lifetime. Three years in to his trip, he had covered Asia, Europe and Africa, and was half way through South America – having shipped his bike from Cape Town to Buenos Aires. We sat peacefully for a few hours, conversing excitedly over the fascination that is borne out of travel and the relationships between cultures and peoples’ psyches. I got an early start the next morning, being treated first by Nelly to a nice breakfast and some pleasant conversation. She told me that the train north into Chile, began not in Osorno, (as I had originally thought) but in Temuco. My first stop enroute to Temuco then, would be Valdivia – one of Chile’s most vibrant cities.I booked a ticket into Chile with Andes Mar and then headed back into town to pick up my long-awaited parcel from Chris. I also did a little extra shopping for climbing and camping gear. My progress was abated by a good hour after I was told that I needed authorization in order to collect my parcel. Great. My only hope was Thomas’s fax machine, but after learning that it didn’t work, I decided to ask the King’s hotel to please authorize the damn form with an ID number and a signature. Sorted.I was stoked to get a thermal undershirt and a polypropylene undershirt for cold weather. Chris also threw in a jar of marmite for the road. A bit random I thought, but hey, you can never get enough energy while on the road. I had run out of time to shop for a stove and a sleeping bag, so I rushed back to the hotel to get my backpack and, with an increasingly depleting window of time, waited for a shuttle to take me to the main bus station…some 3 kilometers away. I hopped onto the bus, meeting this chilled French guy, Joos, who was also headed for Valdivia. The trip this times across the border seemed more revealing, an array of mountainous landscapes featuring abrupt rock formations and patches of red forest…
Source: SOUTH AMERICA ON A SHOESTRING: Backpacking in Argentina & Chile
There is one very serious obstacle preventing the further expansion of sporting activity at Ukhanyo – the physical space available for sports is small and of poor quality. We have therefore started an ambitious plan to improve the situation by refurbishing existing facilities and seeking funding to develop the unoccupied land within the school boundary that is currently used as a playing field. The land was…
